Calling time on digital's cult of accountability
Image courtesy of Aussiegall
Occasionally I have the enormous pleasure of judging New Media Age’s Interactive Marketing and Advertising Awards. And a very splendid awards scheme it is too, with this year’s kings of the digital castle crowned in some style last month. I get invited to fill the ‘enthusiasm-over-experience’ role of digital-curious advertising outsider. This usually involves gobbing off in a cavalier fashion and then being slapped down by people that actually know what they are talking about.
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Great ideas can come from anywhere, my arse
Image courtesy of Markus Nielsen
There are many terrible cliches that lurk like sewer rats in the daily effluent of the advertising industry. And much like sewer rats they are always close to the surface, wholly unpleasant and bloody difficult to eradicate.
By far the most pernicious and destructive is the now widely held belief that ‘ideas can come from anywhere’. What this annoying little platitude means is that anyone engaged in a project whether client or agency and regardless of their discipline may be the person that cracks the big idea.
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Welcome back America - we missed you
The power of emotion
Image courtesy of awwwww.cc
A couple of weeks ago I gave a little talk on the power of emotion in advertising. I thought I'd share a little of it because there are some nice examples.
I have also included a handy little PDF on emotions from Robert Plutchick that adds more depth than in the presentation I gave. In particular it shows our evolutionary response to those emotional stimuli. For example in the case of being presented with an unpalatable object (say a cigarette full of gunk and not tobacco) we appraise that as poison which stimulates digust. Our reaction to disgust is to vomit and eject the poison. And that model helps us to understand why disgust is sucha powerful emotion in advertising if you want people to change behaviour (like give up smoking) and not just change their attitudes.
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Now thats what I call co-creation 2
After the huge success of the co-authored Age of Conversation last year, it is back but bigger and better.
This year 237 authors from 15 countries have put their minds to the subject of 'why don't they get it', with each author contributing a chapter.
I have written a manifesto which highlights the real distinction for me between people that understand how things work in the Age of Conversation and those that don't. Lets say its all about control versus influence.
You can order your copy here. Remembering that just as last year all the profits from sales (thats $10 for every $12.50 e-book) go to the children's charity Variety. Last year AOC raised $15K for Variety so the aim is to beat that.
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What's in a format?
Thank god for that, a few of you have started the ball rolling and submitted briefing formats.
We need a whole load more and from every corner of the globe.
Just got my mits on Naked, M&C and BBH's formats. We now need briefs from places like AMV, Mother, Wiedens, Goodby, Crispin Porter, 180 you know the kind of thing. We also need briefs from some tip top digital agencies - Glue, Dare, Poke in London come to mind - it would be interesting to compare and contrast these with agencies from a stronger advertising tradition. And how about briefs from design agencies, sales promotion and PR?
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What's in a format? Call for entries.
Kurt Cobain's death certificate. To my mind most creative briefing formats certify the death of the thinking. Image courtesy of Night Star Rominus.
I have an issue with creative briefing forms.
I think they encourage form filling and no agency I have ever worked at has used one. However, even I get a little misty eyed at a good one like M&C's first page or BBH's big red proposition box so I thought we might collect them. Then we can all see what each other are up to in a nice sharing caring kind of way.
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Now that's what I call a mash up
Pirate Dinosaurs, you can't say fairer than that. The only thing that could be remotely better would be Pirate Dinosaurs in Space.
Strategies from the edge
Image courtesy of What What.
I don’t like the word edgy.
Edgy is appallingly overused in our business to describe work that that is uncomfortably unconventional.
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Look at the strategy on her
Image courtesy of Mainman.
Droga 5's The Great Schlep idea has been doing the rounds recently as one of the smartest and most engaging political campaigns in a Presidential election that is dripping with smart and engaging political campaigns.
But I thought I'd lob my two penny worth into the fountain of adulation for this piece of work.
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Telephone research must stop. Full stop.
Image courtesy of Old Telephones
Let's agree this now everyone. There are some things marketing and communications should steer well clear of and the telephone is one of them. So lets have no more telemarketing spam, lets have no more political parties ringing people up with an automated message and lets have no more telephone research.
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Planning's mid life crisis
Image courtesy of stoopidgerl.
Only planners would have spent the summer celebrating their 40th birthday. Unless I am very much mistaken, the creative fraternity aren’t given to marking Bernbach’s marriage between art directors and copywriters or account handlers to commemorating the launch of Microsoft Excel for Windows. But the Johnny-come-lately of the advertising community has always felt the need to prove its contribution and to celebrate its survival.
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Orwell - the father of blogging
I have long maintained that the father of blogging was George Orwell. As a prolific diarist and essayist he mastered the blog post form over half a century before the rest of us and before technology caught up with his output.
And now he has one courtesy of academics at the University of Westmister and Wordpress. Everyday they are posting his diary entries exactly 70 years after he penned them to Orwell Diaries.
At the moment he is rather obsessed with the weather and the blackberry season but aren't we all? The comments are worth a read as well.
For a more pokey Orwell get yourself a copy of the columns he wrote for Tribune during the Second World War here"
Problems wanted
Mad Men, a simpler time of real men, real problems and lots of sex on mid century design classics. Image courtesy of Slate.
Unfortunately much advertising is self indulgent nonsense that simply serves to waste the client’s money and the consumer’s time.
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Now that's what I call loyalty beyond reason
Ferret racing in the rain at this year's Innocent Village Fete in London. Image courtesy of fimb
How many companies can get thousands and thousands of people to pay £7.50 to immerse themselves in the brand's experience for a day even when it pours with rain. This brand goes from genius to utter genius.
New work from new home
Charlotte Street, spiritual home of London's ad land. Image courtesy of Chaz Folkes
Its always nice to see some ads occasionally on a blog about advertising. So I have put together some more of the recent work from Saatchis in London.
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Everybody still wants to work at Wiedens
Image courtesy of Kenny & B.
Ohhh look we've gone researchtastic.
Hot in the heels of the IPA Strategy Group's UK strategy community research comes the forth annual Global Planners survey from Heather LeFevre. Of the 798 participants surprise surprise the place planners most want to work is Wieden & Kennedy (apart from 'where you are' which came top in the survey).
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Happy Strategy
The default disposition of strategists. Image courtesy of Traci Bunkers
According to new research by the IPA we are overwhelmingly happy with in our jobs and optimistic about the future.
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As I please - Time to change tack on tobacco
The definition of irony. A British Red Cross ambulance paid for by the workers of the Bristol cigarette manufacturers WD & HO Wills 1914-18. Image courtesy of brizzle born and bred.
As a life long non-smoker and rabid anti-smoker, no one has appreciated and enjoyed the progressive decline in smokers’ freedoms than me.
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The work fights back
It is time to get unreasonable in support of truly great work. Image courtesy of Antar.Ellis
Returning to the world of advertising after a short break, I am reminded of the fundamental truth of our business. To paraphrase the advice given to Bill Clinton during the 1992 Presidential Campaign, it’s the work, stupid.
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Enforced advertising stinks
Image courtesy of M&G
Time for a quick rant.
I have long felt that the one of the guiding principles for advertising is that it should do some good in consumer’s lives even if they chose to ignore or avoid it.
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Spoiled by choice
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, part of his scheme for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel completed in 1512. I may be wrong about this but as far as I am aware he wasn't asked to present three different options for the ceiling to go into research.
Once upon a time in a land far away come the appointed hour of the creative presentation, agencies recommended one idea to their clients.
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Are our start ups a let down?
Image courtesy of Fiat Luxe
The start up plays an almost mythical role in the world of advertising. Start ups are not simply an outlet for the professional and material ambitions of the best in the business, they are absolutely essential to the health and vitality of the industry. If advertising has managed to adapt to the changing business, consumer and communications landscape over the past century it has been largely because of its start-ups.
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Even faster strategy
Image courtesy of Liquidrosephotography
Monday this saw the IPA Strategy Group's fast strategy conference here in London.
All in all a rather splendid occasion.
The high point was the victory of the marvellous Richard Storey in a live head to head fast strategy challenge from the UK Government on Dog Registration. It was a good reminder, if anyone needed it, that Richard is one of the most accomplished creative strategists in adland. The Planning for Good team (Mark Earls, Jon Leech, Ian Tait and Chris Forrest) came second and were outstanding, if not quite as sharp as Richard's M&C team (here is the wiki they built that morning to help them). CHI was rather out-classed and brought up the rear.
Anyway, the event made me think about my top tips for getting to strategy fast so I thought I'd share them with you. I've done 17 since it seems such an unfashionable number. Some stuff will be familiar to regular readers - but when you are creating fast strategy it doesn't do to reinvent the wheel.
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Fast Strategy
Image courtesy of Combined Media.
This is a little piece I did to publicise the Continue reading "Fast Strategy" Image courtesy of Below Zero.
Forgive this self indulgent post but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has helped adliterate stay the course for three years this month, whether commenting, linking or reading. Self evidently I couldn't do it without you.
In particular your comments that offer a thoughtfulness and intelligence often lacking in the original post! And at best they not only get the debate going but take us somewhere new and far more interesting.
Incidentally looking at the 2420 comments so far, the first was from Rob Mortimer as was virtually the last. That deserves the blogging equivalent of a carriage clock.
Image courtesy of Simon Lord
Every morning as I meander to work in Charlotte Street I fortify myself for the day ahead at the Caffe Nero on Tottenham Court Road.
And every morning as I hand over the cash they parrot the same old question ‘do you have a loyalty card’. And every morning I mumble a 'no' and move onto the next question which is about muffins or other items from the pastry selection.
Continue reading "Loyalty my arse" United London's anti-salt campaign from last year. The four I's in action. I have been giving a bit of thought to a planning approach recently. Something that reflects they way I do it at the moment but nothing too heavy and contrived.
Naturally it involves alliteration and specifically the words ‘interesting’, ‘instinct’, ‘insight’ and ‘idea’..
Continue reading "The four I's" Charlotte Street, spiritual home of London's ad land. Image courtesy of Chas Folkes
Thought I'd put up two new bits of work from Saatchis in London. Visa is hot out of the edit suite, you may have clocked Carlsberg already.
Continue reading "New work from new home" Image courtesy of I owe my career in advertising to an ad.
Not to an ad that inspired me but one that I responded to. It was placed by a long gone and deservedly forgotten direct marketing agency trying to find graduate recruits many months after the above the line shops had employed all the good ones. The ad read ‘By the year 2000 90% of marketing will be direct marketing’ and I was sold.
Three years young
Loyalty my arse
The four I's
New work from new home
Be careful what you wish for
